Conceptual artist Mel Chin, who champions cleaning up neighborhoods and the environment with his artwork, will speak at 7 p.m. March 29 in Sydnor Performance Hall, Schewel Hall.
“More to Tell, More to Do,” is a multimedia presentation that explains the complicated layers of Chin’s artwork and provides an update on his nationwide activist engagement, “The Fundred Dollar Bill Project.” A reception will follow the lecture, which is free and open to the public.
The Fundred Dollar Bill Project, a national drawing event, is meant to bring awareness and support for Operation Paydirt, a multidisciplinary project to support a solution to lead-contaminated soil in New Orleans and other cities to help end this form of childhood lead poisoning.
Chin is known for the broad range of approaches in his art, including works that require multi-disciplinary, collaborative teamwork. He developed Revival Field (1989-ongoing), a project that has been a pioneer in the field of “green remediation,” the use of plants to remove toxic, heavy metals from the soil.
Watch an interview with Chin describing his work.
From 1995-1998 Chin formed the collective, the GALA Committee, which produced In the Name of the Place, a public art project conducted on American prime-time television. Chin is one of 16 artists included in the first year of the award-winning PBS Series, Art of the 21st Century. His proposal for a New World Trade Center was part of the American representation at the 2002 Venice Biennale of Architecture.
Chin’s animated film, 911/911, done with Chilean animators in Santiago, Chile, won the Sienna Award, for Best Animation, from the National Council for Arts and Cultures in Santiago, Chile, in 2007.
Chin received a BA from Peabody College in Nashville, Tenn., in 1975. He has created many commissions, public art installations, and one-person exhibitions around the world. He has received numerous awards and grants from organizations such as the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council for the Arts, Art Matters, Creative Capital, and the Penny McCall, Pollock/Krasner, Joan Mitchell, Rockefeller and Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, and several honorary degrees.
03/22/2012, University of Lynchburg Communications and Marketing